A Savage Ruffian!

James Fennimore Cooper recalled a day in June 1806 when he joined the population of Cooperstown, New York, to witness an eclipse of the sun. The eclipse was not the only memorable sight he saw that day, a prisoner had been brought up from his windowless dungeon to view the event. The man “with haggard face and fettered arms…the very picture of utter misery,” was Stephen Arnold, convicted of beating to death his six-year-old adopted daughter Betsey Van Amburgh for mispronouncing a word.

Oregon Hamilton.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

Oregon Hamilton.

"In the month of May, 1888, Oregon Hamilton of Newaygo, Mich., was convicted of murder in the second degree. He is a widower and the crime for which he was convicted was in whipping his nineteen months old daughter to death. The case excited the inhabitants of this small town, and the verdict met with general approval, as the case was one of horrible cruelty, and if the inhabitants could have taken summary punishment in their own hands, the wretch could have saved the county the cost of a trial."

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Defenders and offenders. New York: D. Buchner & Co., 1888.